I have always thought that while it’s wonderful to be the first to do something, you don’t want to be the last.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNORI have always thought that while it’s wonderful to be the first to do something, you don’t want to be the last.
More Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes
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Despite the encouraging and wonderful gains and the changes for women which have occurred in my lifetime, there is still room to advance and to promote correction of the remaining deficiencies and imbalances.
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I sort of thought the framers of the Constitution were talking about the rights of individuals, not corporate entities.
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In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity.
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My hope is that 10 years from now, after I’ve been across the street at work for a while, they’ll all be glad they gave me that wonderful vote.
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I tried to decide each case based on the law and the Constitution.
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I finally gave up my little law practice and stayed home for about three years. You have to do what you can to keep the family going. But I wanted to get back to work. So I got another babysitter and went to work as an Assistant Attorney General.
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If a State refused to let religious groups use facilities open to others, then it would demonstrate not neutrality but hostility toward religion.
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I like to think that the court will continue to be held in high regard by the public. I think it should be.
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I think it’s inevitable that some of the court’s decisions will be found by a segment of the public to be not the right decision or subject to criticism.
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I think people know very little, really, about the court, how it works and its history. And both of those things are important in our country, but they’re not things that most citizens know much about.
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Unfortunately civility is hard to codify or legislate, but you know it when you see it. It’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
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The unhappy persistence of both the practice and the lingering effects of racial discrimination …is an unfortunate reality…and the government is not disqualified from acting in response to it.
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How dare you make my life a felony.
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I think most people didn’t want to do court duty.
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We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.
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Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.
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Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.
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I do not believe it is the function of the judiciary to step in and change the law because the times have changed. I do well understand the difference between legislating and judging. As a judge, it is not my function to develop public policy.
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The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender
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If parents instill a sense of civic-mindedness – and there is no better way to do that than by example – their children will probably follow.
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Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.
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If I stumbled badly in doing the job, I think it would have made life more difficult for women, and that was a great concern of mine and still is.
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(W)e do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment.
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Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to earn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.
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Each justice hires their own clerks, and applications are made individually to the justices. It isn’t a group decision.
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Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.
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